It has been a busy weekend for Russia.
1) Russia's gambit in Moldova is faltering. They issued Russian passports to everyone in Russian occupied Transnistria only to have both Moldova and Ukraine prohibit border crossings by anyone known to hold a Russian passport.
Russia's genius play here was to declare these people as Russian citizens and then use them as an excuse to attack Moldova all in the name of protecting Russians. But it also had to do with giving Russia an excuse to mobilize military age men in Transnistria as a militia force to fight a rearguard action against Ukraine and perhaps Moldova.
Now the region is almost completely embargoed and both Moldova and Ukraine are staging forces to do something about the 1500 regular Russian troops stationed/trapped in Transnistria.
2) Russia lost the pivotal election in Armenia and is, as usual, threatening to attack Armenia for daring to have their own opinions. Russia sent a vague number of military age men to Armenia to vote in the elections with most of them being Armenian expatriates but at least some of them being Russians. The Russians have reportedly been arrested and detained at the current time.
3) Russian citizens are complaining now that the Special Military Operation has come home to their doorsteps. The problem this poses for Putin is that the military units of the FSB (KGB) that used to tamp down domestic dissent have been expended on the front lines in Ukraine. Regular police units are not trained or equipped to deal with this issue.
4) Chinese military units have reportedly been "accidentally" crossing the Amur River in recent weeks. They've even been said to have set up camps on the northern side of the river.
